Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel announced Aug. 22 that Bob Seger will perform the first concert of the newly opened Ford Center Nov. 9.

Excited? I wouldn’t expect you to be. My initial reaction was “Who?!”

So, I quickly went to Youtube to see who the alleged “Legendary musician” as quoted in the Courier and Press. I was greeted on youtube with a bunch of songs I’ve never heard of with the exception of “Old Time Rock and Roll”.

I’m sure Bob Seger is popular and well liked by a large portion of Evansville residents, but really? Bob Seger?

Until recently I never knew who sang that “Old Time Rock and Roll” song and I never cared to find out who sang it, the song is tacky and annoying.

What I find the most interesting though is why they would choose this artist to open a new arena, an arena most most us have been waiting in anticipation for and anxiously awaiting who might be the first person to play. Most of us, myself included, had high hopes for the first concert.

The Ford Center has been our bright, shining hope in the middle of downtown for a new, young, and revived Evansville. I remember a year or two ago, tons of my friends joined a Facebook page called “Get Lady Gaga to play at the Center.”

But, we lost and now Bob Seger will play. Boo-hoo for us. What I don’t understand is in a town of around 117,000 where there are two universities, one of whom is growing in size (that’s us), and an Ivy Tech, why they wouldn’t cater to the younger demographic?

So, I did some research; I found out that the largest portion of Evansville residents are 65 and older women accounting for about 17 percent of the population, the second highest were 35 to 44 year-old-men making just over 15 percent and the third largest men and women between the ages of 25 to 34 accounted for around 14 percent of the population.

Keep in mind however, this data from areavibe.com was from 2009 as we’re awaiting the 2010 statistics, these numbers are continously growing as more and more young kids come to school and start their lives.

Now I understand the two largest groups who are middle-aged may be fans of Bob Seger, but that completely disregards anyone younger.

I don’t know about you but in my lifetime I’ve never once heard a peer of mine state they are Bob Seger fans. In fact, if “Old Time Rock and Roll” comes on the radio at my work we usually dance around mocking the song commenting on how old-school it is.

I don’t know why Bob Seger was chosen as the first concert but I am disappointed. I was really hoping there would have been someone, anyone that could cater to a wider age group and a more diverse crowd to attract an audience.